Chapter 213: Yu Xiaotang’s Talisman Array: The Clever Girl’s Wisdom

Shen Yan stared at the demon soldier whose severed arm had regenerated, his phone screen flashing with frantic red light. A line of text popped up: 【Warning: Detected cyclic spiritual energy circuit, suspected group Seal array】. His mind buzzed.

This thing wasn’t alive—it was a Puppet being constantly recharged and Restarted by something.

“Don’t attack!” He abruptly raised his hand to stop Luo Li, whose palm was already ignited with Purple Fire. “It heals from damage! Hitting it is like giving it a Charge!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground trembled, rubble clattering and shaking. In the distance, three previously incinerated corpses burst out of the earth, their joints cracking, eerie green light glowing in their eye sockets.

Pei Yue took half a step back, holding the little fox demon, her face pale. “There’s more than one?”

“It’s an entire set.” Shen Yan gritted his teeth, flipping through the Interface. “The Formation is connected underground in a network—these are just Nodes.”

He swiped his finger across the screen a few times, trying to pull up a terrain scan, but his Mental Power felt like a leaky bellows. The Program froze halfway through loading. The words 【Advanced Functions Locked】 throbbed painfully at his Temples.

Luo Li stepped in front of him, her tail stiff. “Then you rest. I’ll clear the field.”

“You can’t clear it all.” Shen Yan gasped for breath. “You kill ten, it can regenerate a hundred. Unless we find the source—”

Before he could finish, a yellow figure descended from above, slapping a Candied Hawthorn stick right onto the forehead of the nearest corpse soldier. A Talisman Paper was stuck to it, and the creature instantly froze, as if someone had pressed pause.

“Aiya, you guys are fighting and didn’t call me?”

Yu Xiaotang landed with a roll, her Cosmic Bag clattering noisily. She pulled out a compass and a cinnabar brush, crouched on the ground, and turned halfway in a circle.

“Five elements flowing backward, yin and yang out of alignment…” she muttered, tapping the ground with the brush tip, then suddenly looked up. “This isn’t an ordinary demon Formation—it’s a ‘Soul-Imprisoning Reverse Flow Array’! Those things aren’t resurrected at all; they’re having their souls extracted by the Formation Eye and recast!”

Shen Yan was stunned. “How can you tell?”

“I’ve copied the ‘Restriction Talisman Scripture’ three hundred times, okay?” She pouted. “This kind of Formation is downright sinister—using living people as batteries, draining their souls and stuffing them back into corpses to be recycled. Look at how they walk with the same hand and foot, their eyes empty as if their brains have been scooped out—classic symptoms of soul-body separation!”

Luo Li frowned. “So what do we do now? Wait for them to surround us and call roll?”

“Break the Formation, of course.” Yu Xiaotang stood up, her ponytail swishing. “But first, we need to locate the main Formation Eye.”

She closed her eyes and calculated with her fingers. The compass Pointer spun wildly a few times before suddenly stopping, pointing toward the stone hut.

“It’s right underneath. But forcing it open will trigger a backlash—the entire cellar will collapse, and all the Demon Clan trapped inside will be buried alive.”

Pei Yue looked down at the little fox demon in her arms, breathing weakly, lips turning blue.

Time was running out.

Yu Xiaotang bit her lip, then suddenly pulled eight yellow talismans from her Cosmic Bag, arranging them in her palm. “Brother Shen Yan, buy me three seconds.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Set up a composite suppression array.” She said, “First, lock down the Formation Eye, then cut off the Energy transmission, and finally undo the Seal. Once we complete the whole process, we can guarantee saving at least half of them.”

Shen Yan looked at the sweat beading on her forehead. “Can you handle it alone?”

“I’m a talisman prodigy!” She lifted her chin. “Besides, aren’t all of you here?”

Shen Yan took a deep breath and pressed his fingers against the phone. 【Latency Trigger Protocol · Initiate】 He focused his remaining mental power, simulating the flow of spiritual energy into a delayed signal, briefly freezing the energy flow in the surrounding space.

The air seemed to solidify for a moment.

Yu Xiaotang immediately sprang into action. She bit the tip of her finger, letting blood drip onto the ground as she swiftly drew a complex script core. Eight talisman papers flew out simultaneously, landing precisely in eight directions to form a closed loop.

“Heaven and earth boundless, cosmos lend me power—hold!”

A golden light shot into the sky, and the ground cracked with spiderweb-like patterns, extending straight beneath the stone house. With a muffled boom, the seal was broken. Amidst the swirling dust, over a dozen figures tumbled out from the underground secret chamber.

They ranged from old to young, most severely injured and unconscious, with several being children.

Pei Yue rushed over immediately to assess their injuries, while Luo Li stood guard vigilantly around them.

Yu Xiaotang staggered, bracing herself against the wall to keep from falling. The candied hawthorn in her hand had long since melted, the sticky syrup clinging between her fingers, and her hair was plastered to her face with sweat.

But her smile was especially bright.

“How was that?” She walked up to Shen Yan, looking up at him. “I can be a main force too, right?”

Shen Yan looked at her, then suddenly reached out and ruffled her hair.

“Yeah, reliable.”

Yu Xiaotang’s face flushed red, and she turned away, pretending to tidy her cosmic bag. “Who asked for your praise… I was just afraid you’d mess things up.”

Luo Li snorted coldly. “That move just now was somewhat useful.”

“Hey! I saved all of you!”

“If you’d been two seconds later, we’d all be buried with them.”

The two of them bickered back and forth while Shen Yan leaned against a broken wall, the corner of his mouth curling slightly.

His phone vibrated. 【Local Cache restored 12%】 Finally able to run some basic programs.

Just as he was thinking this, Yu Xiaotang suddenly tugged his sleeve.

“Wait.” She narrowed her eyes, staring at the residual talisman marks on the ground. “Something’s off.”

“What is it?”

“The formation eye shouldn’t have been broken so easily.” She crouched down, using the tip of a pen to brush away the loose soil. “Look here, the energy flow has a break—it’s like it was weakened beforehand.”

Shen Yan’s heart skipped a beat.

Had someone tampered with this formation before them?

“And…” Yu Xiaotang looked up. “All these captives have brands on them—marks of the ‘Abyss Plan.’”

“Abyss?” Shen Yan’s pupils contracted.

That was a word he’d seen in his source code spiritual root, part of the fragments of his past life’s memories.

Yu Xiaotang didn’t notice his unease, clapping her hands as she stood up. “Anyway, this place is really sinister. We need to get these people out of here quickly.”

Pei Yue had already given preliminary treatment to several severely injured members of the Demon Clan, but the situation was far from optimistic.

“We need medicinal herbs and a safe place,” she said.

“There’s an abandoned medicine hut on the outskirts of the camp,” Yu Xiaotang said. “I saw it on my way here—it should still be usable.”

Shen Yan nodded. “Then let’s head there.”

Just as he took a step, his phone suddenly displayed a new notice. 【Detected encrypted data packet, source unknown】 Immediately after, another line appeared: 【Associated keywords: Source Code, Discarded Pawns, Restart】

He paused mid-step.

Yu Xiaotang turned back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He put away his phone. “Let’s go.”

The group began to move. Yu Xiaotang walked at the very back, glancing once more at the half-collapsed stone house.

Her compass was still trembling faintly.

Not because of residual formation energy.

But because deep underground, something was restarting.

Shen Yan, carrying an injured young wolf demon on his back, suddenly stopped when he reached the edge of the ruins.

He sensed a familiar ripple.

It was as if someone was calling to his Source Code Spiritual Root in some way.

Yu Xiaotang leaned closer. “Did you receive another Signal?”

Shen Yan did not answer.

His fingers unconsciously traced the edge of his phone as a thought flashed through his mind—

Why was this formation broken precisely at this moment?

Who didn’t want them to go any deeper?

(End of Chapter)